Láska's Guide to Changeling Interaction
Hello, simple minded ponies! Nice to eat yo-... Meet you. My name is Láska. Say it with me. Laaaaah-skuuuh.Good.~ ANYWHO! I've taken over this part of the internet to address something very specific: Changeling Interaction! Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to belittle anyone; I'm just hoping to improve your chances of interacting with your favorite changeling players! Since all players have personal prefernces, I don't guarentee that you'll get a scene with everyone, but hopefully this will help you understand a bit more about how the Hive works! Changelings! Changelings Everywhere! Most of you ponies think we're uncultured savages. Well, that just isn't true! The Hive is a complex place, full of drones that are complicated and downright confusing. Before the complexity of it all hurts your little pony brain, I'll explain some things about it. While all players have creative liberty with their characters, there is a basic changeling canon that most of the drones involved in the Hive follow. There are exceptions to these canon guidelines, just as there are to the established Twitterponies Guidelines. I'll just cover the basics, as Chrysalis' player already came up with this handy little page here. So, what exactly is ''a changeling? For those of you that don't know, a changeling is a creature of the bug horse varity that feeds off the emotions on others. They can take the forms of most anything, but there are rules to what they can and can not change into. While each character is different, changelings prefer love to any other emotion, as that is what gives them the most energy. There are three kinds of changelings, listed in the table below. These are just a general idea of the kinds of drones the active Hive will interact with, and is in no way a limit to your creativity. Changeling Etiquette Here's where things get a bit touchy. I'm not going to turn this into a rant, so I'll keep this short and to the point. In my two years as an active drone, there are things I've seen some ponies do that just completely turn me off from wanting to interact with ''any ''pony accounts. While I understand that not every pony is bad, it's gotten to the point where I would only consider rping with the memebers of the Hive who have pony alts, and that's not fair for everyone else, right? So, I got a few major players in the Hive together, and we came up with a basic Changeling Etiquette for Ponies. :1.' Changeling Concealment': As mentioned above, changelings take the form of others to move about pony society undetected. Let's create a scenerio, using Myriad (who else?) as an example! : ''*sitting on a mailbox in cat form, Myriad gives condescending glances toward every pony that passes* '' : That's a pretty normal cat thing to do, right? Myriad looks like a typical, grumpy cat, and as far as any pony knows, that's what she is. So, what's a response Myriad's player would like to see? Let's use a random pony as an example: : ''*Groot trots out to check his mailbox, only to find a grumpy looking cat sitting on top of it* ... (@mlp_Myriad) '' * In all honesty, the detector plants ruin our fun. We like to play the sneaky bad guy. It's why we're changelings, and not Diamond Dogs. * In canon, we've created a way to circumvent the detecor plants, using gems. Built to look like a broach or charm or something a pony would wear, it's a set of gemstones with properties similar to crystal healing. They redirect magics associated with negativity and change and transmute them to energies associated with love, so the flowers are confused and believe they see a pony. The gems have a 10' radius, with the Queen's being more powerful. Any drone within that radius is 'safe.' The gems aren't visible while a drone is in pony form, so it's be easy for a drone to slip up and forget theirs. : 3. '''Swarming': A changeling walks into Ponyville, completely disguised, and is immediantly swarmed by ponies. While the ponies have good intentions and just want senpai to notcie them, things get confusing for the changeling player, and distracts them from a scene they may already have planned. Interactions are welcome, but it's generally a good idea to check with the player first before jumping in. I suggest reading the last twenty or so tweets, to get an idea of what's going on. If the player chooses to respond to a tweet, great! Don't force it. Just because they respond to one, doesn't mean they'll respond to every tweet sent their way. : 4. Ponies in the Hive: This isn't as much of a problem as it was a while back, but it still should be mentioned. The Hive is the only home to the changelings, so they don't take kindly to ponies who randomly pop up in the Hive. The location is unknown. It's not plotted on a map, and there's no train that will take a pony to the Hive. There are such things as Loyal Ponies, but that takes lots of time and effort to achieve. Questions? As players, there are things we like to see and things we don't when interactining with others. One of the reasons our hive roleplay works so well is because we communicate ''internally, wether it be through OOC accounts or in Skype. Feel free to ask questions in the comments below, and I'll address them as they come up. You can also directly mention a player or DM them if they follow you with any questions you have regarding the roleplay and how they play their character. : This is a pretty good example of the kinds of responses most changeling players will choose to interact with. Not only is Groot clueless to the fact that Myriad is in fact a changeling in disguise, it doesn't ruin her scene. So, what kind of response would a player ignore? : ''*Groot trots out to check his mailbox, finding a highly supsicious looking cat sitting on top of it* I am Groot! (This must be a changeling!) *he pulls out a detector plant and blasts @mlp_Mryiad full in the face* '' : This is a prime example of powergaming, and depending on the player, it's usually flat out ignored. Why, do you ask? There is no way Groot could have known Myriad was a changeling, unless she revealed herself. Groot backed Myriad's player into a corner, forcing her to either go along with what he wants to happen, or ignoring him (which makes us seem like a jerk.) :: 2. '''Detector Plants': As a Hive, we have acknowledged the existence of the detector plants. The general opinion of them is that they're completely OP. Not only are they making it impossible to go anywhere as a disguised changeling, it's a trump card the ponies don't even need! We know we're not going to win, so it's not like we're going to try and overpower our way past the Mane Six and collective Princesses. That'd be stupid. Instead, we'd love to find an enteratining way to lose, so in an effort to make things fair to all players, we ask that detector plants are only used when the changeling player involved in the scene gives their consent. There's two reasons for this: :::